This invention relates to waveguide resonators and more particularly to a multichannel optical waveguide resonator.
It is known, for example, to employ passive ring optical resonators as rotation sensors for very accurately determining rotation rates as part of inertial navigation systems. The sensitivity of such devices in which light circulates in a ring is directly related to the effective cavity length or perimeter of the ring. Thus, rings with larger perimeters theoretically will have greater sensitivity. With a single ring resonator, however, increasing the effective cavity length by increasing the perimeter leads to a sensor which is physically larger, a definite disadvantage when the rotation sensor is to be used in an airborne device.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a passive ring waveguide resonator in which the effective cavity length is increased many times over the actual perimeter of the waveguide resonator.
Another object is such a resonator in which the sensitivity is improved by several orders of magnitude over a single channel optical waveguide resonator.
Yet another object of this invention is an optical waveguide resonator which is relatively easy to manufacture and capable of long lifetimes.